About Us

Oxus International is run by Farrell Styers, Kirstin Styers and Chris Rickleton. We have a network of consultants who work on a per-project basis. These include sociologists, geographers, journalists, and lawyers, among others.

Farrell Styers is the founder and Director of Oxus International. He is a media analyst and social science researcher, living and working in Kyrgyzstan from August 2010 to August 2013. Previous to his work in Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Styers was a quantitative media and polling analyst for a U.S. government contractor in Washington D.C. and the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. His work has been published in “Mining Journal,” a leading industry publication, and in numerous places on the web. He has presented his research at the annual “Operational Research and Systems Analysis” conference and has lectured at several universities in Central Asia. He currently resides in Gent, Belgium where is a user experience researcher for an international tech company.

Chris Rickleton is the Director of Development for Oxus International, a research consultancy based in the Kyrgyz Republic. Since 2011 Oxus International has specialized in research focused on the dynamics of company-community relations in the Kyrgyz mining sector, as well as helping companies within the sector conduct Social Economic Baseline studies, Land Use Surveys and other studies in order to better understand the communities within which they work. In addition to managing projects and authoring studies for Oxus International, Chris consults regularly for IHS Global Insight on political and legislative changes affecting companies working in the extractive industries in Kyrgyzstan, and contributes to the IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review. He also covers current events in Kyrgyzstan and the broader Central Asian region as an analyst and reporter for the Soros-sponsored media outlet Eurasianet, specializing in regional geopolitics and the impact of increases in Chinese trade and FDI for the republics of Central Asia. He received an MA in International Relations from the University of St-Andrews, Scotland in 2007.